PESHAWAR: Reacting to the death of three people during anti-encroachment drive at Ghanta Ghar here on Friday evening, the business community on Saturday placed bodies of the victims on the GT Road and held a protest rally. They also offered funeral prayers on the busy thoroughfare and urged the government to hold a judicial inquiry into the incident and award exemplary punishment to those found guilty in this regard.

Most of the bazaars and shopping centres, including Ghanta Ghar, Reti Bazaar, Karimpura, Shaheen Bazaar and Meena Bazaar, remained closed in protest and the traders took out protest processions from different bazaars to mourn the death of their colleagues. They were shouting slogans against the government and demanded stern action against the officials of Municipal Corporation Peshawar (MCP) for, what they said, taking lives of traders.

The protesters were led by leaders of various organisations of traders, including Malik Mehr Ilahi, Jahangir Ghufran, Shakeel Ahmed, Javaid Akhtar, Haleem Jan, Kifayatullah Durrani, Mujeebur Rehman, Haji Ibrahim and Sharafat Ali Mubarak. Leaders of various political parties, including Awami National Party MNA Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, Pakistan Peoples Party former provincial president Syed Zahir Ali Shah and PML-N leader Haji Afzal, participated in the funeral prayers and spoke on the occasion.

Condemning the incident, the speakers warned that they would not allow the anti-encroachment campaign unless the government held investigation into the incident. They said that the MCP administration was testing the patience of the traders, adding they were united and had the capacity to observe province-wide strike, but the idea was dropped due to the prevailing uncertain situation. The traders asked the government to compensate the victims’ families, give government jobs to their heirs and allot them shops on permanent basis.

The traders ended their protest on the assurance of police officers that a case had already been registered on their complaint and action would be taken following the inquiry.

Meanwhile, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has announced compensation of Rs1million for the family of each of the victims and Rs200,000 for the injured traders. The government has also ordered inquiry into the incident.

Siraj Khan, special secretary home and tribal affairs department, has been appointed as inquiry officer and asked to submit report to the provincial government within three days. A statement issued here on Saturday said that the inquiry officer would determine negligence during the anti-encroachment campaign and why proper safety measures were not adopted. He will also fix responsibility in this regard.

Four people, including MCP administrator Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Chief Municipal Officer Saleem Khan, assistant municipal officer revenue Riaz Awan and another official Shahid Awan, have been charged in the FIR.

“We have registered a murder case on the complaint of a trader, Shahid Khan, but no one has so far been arrested in this regard,” an official of Kotwali police station told Dawn.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2015

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